Kishore Mahbubani: How the West can adapt to a rising Asia
Through his books, diplomatic work and research, Kishore Mahbubani reenvisions global power dynamics through the lens of rising Asian economies. Full bio
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when China and India
the West chose to go to sleep?
to the failure of the West
that's obviously been created
I feel anguished by this,
is to try to help the West.
actually woke up the rest of the world.
were always those of China and India.
that Europe took off,
a major historical aberration.
is that it was Western civilization
to successfully modernize,
to colonize and dominate the world.
of Western wisdom
personally benefited
of humanity then,
when I went to school
was that of Western education.
traveled this journey
to a comfortable middle-class existence,
about the impact of Western wisdom
wisdom with the world.
that the West shared
invented by the West.
and civilizations.
embedded it is in Indian civilization.
that carried the art of reasoning
many major practical problems.
this art of applied reasoning
revolutions transformed Asia.
why so many Asian economies,
of China and Vietnam,
in economic development,
absorbed and are implementing
from personal experience.
you see all throughout Asia today.
of the third revolution:
with the rest of the world,
of the West should have been
and adapt to this new world."
with two major events.
was the end of the Cold War.
was a great victory.
without firing a shot.
a great victory like this,
in a very famous essay
a very sophisticated message,
heard from this essay
that has to change and adapt.
of brain damage to the West
when China and India were waking up
a lot of shock and grief.
the shock and grief
when 9/11 happened.
decided to invade Afghanistan
the significance of another event
called creative destruction.
about new competitive policies,
of the bottom 50 percent --
over a 30-year period,
of Donald Trump in 2016,
of the working classes,
to the rise of populism in Europe.
by the end of the Cold War and by 9/11?
we face today is this:
adopt a new "three-m" strategy:
and Machiavellian.
Western domination has ended,
and interfere in the affairs
and spirits of Western societies.
if it is left alone to do so.
because I come from a region,
as the Arab world.
diverse continents on planet earth,
146 million Christians,
and Hinayana Buddhists --
and Confucianists and Hindus
be experiencing a clash of civilizations.
and prosperous corners of planet earth
regional multilateral organization,
cannot solve all the problems.
that have to be dealt with:
they must be destroyed.
of the world's population --
88 percent of the world's population?
with the remaining 88 percent.
the support of humanity?
with the UN can lead to success.
President George W. Bush,
the senior Bush went to the UN
why we have to work with the UN.
interdependent, global village.
village counsel we have,
Kofi Annan said,
my Machiavellian point.
who's often derided in the West,
Isaiah Berlin reminded us
was to promote virtue, not evil.
the best way for the West
that the best way to constrain them
and multilateral norms,
with one final, big message.
Western societies have become.
that a great future lies ahead for them,
will not have better lives.
or the rest of the world.
a direct cultural connection
from Tehran to Tokyo.
lives in this space,
to adopt a wiser strategy
multilateral and Machiavellian,
will be happy to work with the West.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kishore Mahbubani - Author, diplomat, academicThrough his books, diplomatic work and research, Kishore Mahbubani reenvisions global power dynamics through the lens of rising Asian economies.
Why you should listen
Kishore Mahbubani is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. From 1984-1989 and 1998-2004, he was Singapore's Permanent Representative to the UN, and served twice as President of the UN Security Council during the second term.
Mahbubani is best known in the West as the author of Can Asians Think?, The Great Convergence (which was selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2013) and Has the West Lost It?.
Kishore Mahbubani | Speaker | TED.com